Loosing ground

(17.8.04) The rand was weaker against major currencies in late afternoon trade yesterday trade yesterday on the back of continued negative sentiment following Thursday's announcement of a surprise 50-basis point cut in the repo rate to 7,5%.

RMB AM and Business Day report that market analysts said that the local unit could lose more ground in the coming days. I late afternoon, the rand was quoted at R7,5700 to the dollar from R6,4801.

It was quoted at R8,0969 to the euro from Friday's R8,0006 and at R12,020 against sterling from a previous R11,9370.

The rand is looking a bit weak and US data did not help matters much - net capital inflows rose sharply in June, which helped put the dollar on the front foot.

Given perception that last week's rate cut may have had a political swing factor, the market is still suffering from poor sentiment.

Market talk is that the rand may weaken.

The dollar posted modest gains against most major currencies yesterday after a report on flows into US assets showed enough of a rise in foreign investments to offset the current account gap for the month.